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Saturday, October 25, 2014

Why I write

Mrs. Mole of Fit for a Queen , who I admire totally, has nominated me for the blog hop meming it's way around the sewing community right now. I don't usually do memes but I think the questions that are asked are really interesting and get a bit of our personalities out there. Here are my answers to the meme questions:1. Why do I write?I really enjoy the craft of writing. It doesn't have to be sewing related and my occasional "story" posts show that side. I like going over my words and tweaking and changing until I feel that what I want to express is clear. I am really into "clear". Hopefully my instructions and posts show that. I also write to share "real" sewing. You'll see me share the mistakes, the misfits, the embarrassments and how I persistently change them to wearable. I think it's important to show "real" sewing among bloggers. So many blogs are written with the final glory shots and no clue that the blogger had any difficulty in construction. I think it is important to the continuation of this craft to show how mistakes and slip ups can be overcome and that even someone who has sewn a long time has these issues. By sharing them I hope I inspire less experienced sewists to power through for the final results which are always worthy, no matter who makes them. So I write to share the struggle.I also write to be part of a community of like minded people who share my passion. I live in a village of 352 people up near the Canadian border. I have searched and searched and while our area abounds with quilters, finding a garment sewist nearby has not given me any results yet. I keep trying, using social media, local quilt shops, etc, but I am so outnumbered up here. 2. How is my blog different from others of the same genre?There are a few ways my blog is distinguished from others:* "Real" sewing is what I show. You see me power through the challenges, tapping into my "toolbox" of skills to hopefully turn around what could be wadders. I ruminate and ponder, sometimes for a few days, before I see solutions but eventually they come. And sometimes readers help me find the right solution as well and I so appreciate that. * I try to be really clear with the processes I show. Please tell me if I am not. I try to blog like blogs I like to read, where process is shown clearly and logically and I get to learn something. Hopefully I am accomplishing that here. * I am not afraid of controversy. While those posts are the rarity, I do think certain topics are critical to the growth and continuation of this art and should be discussed as a community. They are far from my reason for blogging, however. I am just passionate about quality sewing and its artistic merit and it spills over now and then. * I invite constructive criticism and suggestions and tips that may be different than my own methods. I so appreciate when commenters teach me something new. Thank you to all of you who have done this, and there are many. I don't know it all and am always open to suggestion;3. What am I working on right now? Today I will hem my rayon knit top, a grey textured opaque fabric. I hope to get pics up soon. Fighting for my attention and the prize of being the next project are a few things: * a total outfit consisting of black pants, a black pinafore (if you can imagine that) and a flow-y cream colored shirt to wear with it. This idea has been driving me nuts so it may win the race. I finally have my black fabric which is a rayon ponte. * A piece of purple/royal blue-ish wool gabardine has felted beautifully. I need some soft jackets for work and this will be the ticket. I haven't firmed up on a pattern yet. * a blue and white gingham pinafore and white blouse for this Friday!!!! I've agreed to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz for Halloween. We are all dressing as various book characters for the day. I see some ridiculous pictures coming up for what forces me to make it my next project. \ * I continue to play with my beads and jewelry, some smocked. This is serious newbie play and not worthy of showing yet and since I don't know what I am doing will wait for any posts on these projects. 4. What is my writing process?First, my camera is always next to me. At this point, my brain is on auto pilot and I grab the camera every time I do an interesting technique or work out a challenge. Final pics are either by my hubby or the tripod. He is getting better at it.At the end of the day I load my pics, review them, crop if necessary, watermark them but other than fiddling with the brightness, not adjusted further. It would be fun to remove circles under my eyes and slim my hips but I don't have those skills! See "real" sewing comments.I review the pics, write down the ones I will use on a list and then open blogger. The pics trigger what I want to say and I start writing. Sometimes I write ahead and just click the post to publish on the day I want to. Other times I work it through to completion and click publish. The pics are my triggers unless I am writing one of my "stories" or commenting on a subject, but even those usually have pics. After written I go over and over previewing the post and looking for better ways to get my thoughts across. I look up my links and make those connections. Yesterday I was blown away by a new to me blog that the writer maybe didn't know how to use spell check or write clearly. It was very confusing and distracting to read and I don't want that to happen here. An occasional unconscious typo will appear but I try to weed out the errors and edit my posts before publishing.This is how I write and why I write, a question I've never been asked so thank you Mrs. Mole. I teach blogging classes in our local "big city", certainly not my village, and the first thing I ask my students is "why do you want to blog?" Then I give them reasons why people blog. I will spare you the entire opening of my class but today there seem to be two kinds of blogs which can be broken into a lot of subsets. The family tree starts with monetized and non-monetized blogs marrying and then proliferates into many interesting offspring from there. No matter the type of blog, it needs to be driven by passion and consistence as a blogger's readers come to depend on a certain regularity or they move on. Lose the passion, lose the reader. Thanks again, Jo, for passing the torch along. Now to move this chain letter along......Bunny

I'm so glad I passed the baton to you, Bunny...now we know way more about your wonderful life and knowing that you actually help others to start blogs warms my heart. You create and pass love around wherever you go and whenever you write. Thank you for all you do and are!

You are such a wonderful writier and it is fun to hear you explain your process and reasoning. Thanks for so much inspiration. I only feel sorry that there isn't a local fashion sewing frind who could learn and share in the fun IRL. Makes me admire your sewing achievements even more to know you are doing it in as small a village as you described.

At first I was dubious of this challenge (yes, I got caught too!) but it has been really interesting to read yours and Mrs Mole's in particular. It gives a lot of insight into the people that you are. Experienced teachers. Sewing enthusiasts. Caring about developing new talent and supporting the new generation to get it right. Your blog is amazing and beyond helpful. But these posts on writing help reveal the lovely people behind the instruction. Thank you Bunny.

About Me

I am a passionate sewist who was taught heirloom hand sewing by Spanish nuns as a child. But my love of all things fiber has taken many turns since then. I have seriously sewn my entire life and can't imagine not doing so. I have tried other creative endeavors but now realize that designing and sewing clothing for myself and others is what I am meant to do. I pray this trip through my blog is one you will savor and return to. I've been proudly blogging since April of 2007.